A Colorado coal plant that was supposed to shut in 2025 was ordered to run through December 25

Craig Station Unit 1, a 446.4-megawatt coal unit in Craig, Colorado, was scheduled to shut down at the end of 2025 and is now under a federal order to stay available through December 25, 2026. Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed the directive on September 25, 2026, and it took effect on September 27. It is Craig Order No. 202-26-49, an emergency order under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act.

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The order covers a 90-day stretch, September 27 through December 25, 2026, and it is the latest in a chain. Three earlier orders kept the same unit available in 90-day blocks, so the plant that was meant to retire has now been held open through four consecutive orders. The Energy Department says it acted because of reliability risks in the Rocky Mountain region of the Western grid.

Craig Order No. 202-26-49

The text of the order itself names Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which operates the station, and the co-owners of Units 1 and 2: Platte River Power Authority, Salt River Project, PacifiCorp and Public Service Company of Colorado. Together with the Southwest Power Pool, they must take all measures needed to keep Unit 1 available to operate. The Energy Department’s order page lists the same parties, the issue date of September 25, and the term of September 27 to December 25.

The Southwest Power Pool is told to dispatch Unit 1 economically, only in the hours needed to address the emergency and in a way that minimizes costs to ratepayers. Both the pool and Tri-State, with the co-owners, must send the department a daily report on whether the unit ran in compliance, and Tri-State had to file a report by October 10 on the steps taken and planned to keep it available. The order says rate recovery is available under federal law, so Tri-State and the co-owners must file any tariff revisions with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the unit will not count as a capacity resource.

Four orders in 90-day steps

The first was Order No. 202-25-14, issued December 30, 2025 and running through March 30, 2026. The department’s list of 2026 emergency orders shows the next two: No. 202-26-21, issued March 30 for March 31 to June 28, and No. 202-26-31, issued June 26 for June 29 to September 26. Each began the day after the previous one expired, so the unit has been covered continuously since December 30, 2025, a stretch that began right as the plant was due to retire.

The 90-day length is built into the statute. Section 202(c) says an emergency order of this type “shall expire not later than 90 days after it is issued,” and it allows renewal or reissue for periods not to exceed 90 days each, and that renewal language, in the federal statute behind the orders, is what permits the same unit to be held open one 90-day block after another.

Several parties asked the department to reconsider the first order. Rehearing requests were filed in January 2026, the department issued a notice on March 2 that rehearing was denied by operation of law, and on June 24 it issued an order addressing the arguments raised.

The reliability case in the order

The Energy Department’s announcement says the unit supports reliability in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s Rocky Mountain region, and that the order addresses elevated risk during atypical weather. The order text finds that an emergency exists from a sudden demand increase and a shortage of generation or transmission facilities, and says the conditions behind the three earlier orders have continued. It cites regional operator warnings of large baseload retirements and projected demand growth of 27 percent in the Rocky Mountain subregion over a decade, driven partly by data centers.

It also points to specific evidence. The Southwest Power Pool’s western footprint declared Energy Emergency Alerts in July and August 2026, and Unit 1 generated about 56,782 megawatt-hours from January through June 2026. The order says shoulder seasons, the months between peak summer and winter demand, have become increasingly challenging for grid operators to manage.

Wright said the efforts of state and federal leaders to remove reliable generation had harmed Coloradans’ wallets and energy security. The department adds that since 2025 more than 17 gigawatts of coal generation nationwide has been kept from going offline, a national total that is not a measure of Craig alone. The order also allows an orderly ramp-down once it ends on December 25, and Unit 1 must meet applicable environmental requirements to the maximum extent feasible while it runs. None of the documents says whether a fifth order will follow when this one lapses, so December 25 is the only end date on the record. Anyone tracking the plant should watch the department’s list of 2026 emergency orders for a successor, since each earlier order was followed by another within a day.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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